Fighting to beat my cancer one day at a time

Y1D9 – No Pain No Gain

This past week brought a lot of physical activity. I have done three bouldering sessions with mixed results. The last session was today where I have mastered a few climbs and even conquered a few new ones. At the same time, there are two relatively low rated climbs that I am totally stuck on. The activity is seriously challenging both mentally and physically. I like the “problem” element of the rock gym about as much as the physical component. I have 1 more week of my trial membership so I have to decide whether I am going to stick with it soon. Yesterday, I went for a strenuous 4+ hour hike on the NJ side of the Delaware Water Gap with a good buddy. Today, everything hurts due to the high activity level; fingertips, forearms and shoulders from the gym and my feet and legs from the hike. No pain, no gain!

I really believe in fermented foods and especially like kimchi so today I made a batch of my own. I chose to avoid the seafood component — either salted shrimp or fish sauce — since that stuff wigs me out and smells really bad. A made my first batch and even without the fish it still smells… and hasn’t even started to ferment. Oh well.

I am tired but not giving up on the enhanced physical activity. Beyond the physical stuff, I am involved in tons of personal stuff and doing relatively well on the business front. It is hard to say if I have my “original” energy back but that is not an important measure. What is important is to take advantage of each day. It seems like there is a never ending amount of things that I am obligated to do as well as things that I just want to do. I cannot imagine ever reaching the end of my “to do” list. Forget reaching the end, I cannot even visualize the end of the list. Items near the top of the list include more hiking and climbing, starting a business, delivering on my volunteer assignments and helping my clients succeed. There is a week at the beach, a few more college trips and school starts up really soon. The beginning of school is stressful and requires a keen sense of servicing the needs of the rest of the family. There are also a bunch of “new” things that I won’t bother listing here for fear of sounding self involved but I would really like to get around to them soon.